Cutter CascadiaDolcetto “Ashes to Ashes” (750ml)

I like this wine a lot; it is brisk, with dark fruit, savory yet also beautifully perfumed, with sweet-fruit aromatics, fresh and mineral. I wrote to Michael and told him how much I dug the wine, adding that “I’m not really a Dolcetto kinda guy,” not really knowing if anyone really considered themselves a “Dolcetto” person. Michael responded:“Yeah I get it, there really aren’t Dolcetto people out there, like say there are Nebbiolo or Pinot or RIESLING people, but Dolcetto was always appealing to me simply because of my background in Italian wine. It’s soif-fy and serious all at the same time. I make it for immediate consumption of course and it’s pretty and floral and plummy, but it can age pretty well too, with all of its tannins. From the standpoint of where the Gorge is currently, it remains, I think, one of the varietals that is really well suited to the climate here, although it remains a difficult grape to manage. It’s very sensitive, in short, to literally everything. The block I farm at von Flowtow [the site], at nearly 1000 feet, was my first vineyard out of my viticulture classes. I think I have a pretty deep understanding of that place, at least my vines (there only like 477 of them at last count). To be fair, this parcel is the rug rat of the vineyard, always looking a little like hell, especially late summer on, but I always liked the fruit and the wines despite how gnarly it is. It’s the ugly mutt that has a lot of personality. I’ve often conjectured that it’s the problems (like trunk disease) that give it character (and I even ran an experiment in 2017 that gives this some credence to this theory, but that’s for another day).

I then asked him about the name, “Ashes to Ashes,”  which, especially after the summer fires of 2020 seemed very poignant, like it had to be pregnant with meaning. What I got in return was something brutally honest, and not really what I expected, though as someone who worked as an artist for nearly 10 years, it reverberated. He wrote: “I know, I know… I mean, on the one hand I think for me ‘Ashes to Ashes’ just sounds cool. It’s a nod to Bowie, of course… Bowie, always Bowie. But, what I suppose is most vital is that the name reflects my interpretation of where I’m at right now in the COVID world. Having seen my career obliterated by the pandemic like so many others, the vineyards I work with and my little wine label are all I am left with… and that’s ok. You have to admit to yourself that it doesn’t really matter. It doesn’t matter that I do any of this and really the only thing I glean from any of this is the work itself in all of its engrossing ways. The work becomes you at a certain point, but none of it really matters to anyone except yourself, who has the simple pleasure of spending your time in such a way. Sure, someone who lives 2,500 miles away might drink this and enjoy it but to create something from nature that has no guarantees and is made for the simple joy of doing it is enough. There are bigger problems than my little .61 acre block of Dolcetto I manage, I get it, and if everything goes away tomorrow it’ll all be the same. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Sorry if that doesn’t really help you on your end, but I guess for ease you can always say I upgraded from a Badfinger reference to a Bowie one?”